A Friendly Accord
by SonicMakesMyHeartGoFast
Summary: tails has forgot sonic, but sonic still feels deeply for tails... and robotnik agrees to peace, but in return, own sonic as a corporate entity! O.O" I hope you enjoy as much as I am enjoy writing it! Thanks @helicanus for the edits! :D
1. Chapters 1 & 2

A Friendly Accord

Chapter One

Sonic's head was lightly throbbing, in a way that threatened to bring on a headache in the next hour or so. It wasn't from drink; he was just nursing his first Ring-Catcher (three counts gin, one count Goldschlager, one count amaretto), so he was hardly tipsy yet. He brought his hand to his temple, gently massaging it. That's just the nature of the beast in Studiopolis Zone; the blaring lights and hovering cameras, the shudder of camera shutters and the general glare and overload. What Sonic hated most was the constant sensation of being inside an aperture. Which, if you don't know what an aperture means, is like, it's basically a hole, but like, specifically the hole in a camera's lens that lets you take pictures, but for Sonic it was also the pinned-in, desperation-inducing sensation of being inside a metaphorical hole. Being pinned in one place, as one thing, in the eyes of all around you.

And the doors of the bar came crashing open, and instantly Sonic knew who had just walked in. "Robotnik," he said with a groan. "Leave it to a Russkie to design a Zone like this," he mused. Egghead sat on the stool beside Sonic and gave him an amicable, if overly-ingratiating, smack on the back.

"Sonic, my boy! How goes the night? Enjoying the peace and fame?"

Things certainly had been peaceful since the Accord a few months ago. Egghead had agreed to stop turning animals into robots and making general siege on the universe, and in return, Egghead received sort of media-rights to Sonic. Egghead may not be ruling the land anymore, but he had certainly used Sonic's image to sway the masses in the past few months. Everywhere Sonic turned these days, it seems, he saw his own face advertising Robotnik's products. Robotnik had taken all the energy he used to funnel into world domination, and used it to become a Goliath of industry. (Goliath was not a cyclops, and neither was Mr. Egghead Robotnik.)

But Sonic's answer reflected how he generally felt about it: "Not what it's cracked up to be, but it beats the alternative."

"Now surely you're enjoying the fruits of this life?" Egghead asked. "Look around you! You haven't paid for a drink in this bar in weeks."

"Drop it, Robotnik." Egghead put a finger under Sonic's chin and lifted it, bringing Sonic's face right up to his own.

"I need to know the talent can be relied upon."

Sonic moved Egghead's hand away, delicately, a movement that was not unkind. "You've got me where you need me," he said. Inwardly, he grimaced. But Egghead was practically purring.

"Good. Now, I'm going to need you to run on… OH that's funny, run, that was totally unintentional! Erm, run on over to Green Hill Zone tomorrow. We're having a photo shoot for Robotnik's Personal Handyman; the new model releases in a few weeks, and PR wants to get ahead of it all. And of course we need your pretty face for a commercial."

"No script?"

"Enjoy your night, script's easy this time."

Sonic paused. "You know I don't like going back to Green Hill Zone anymore."

To this, Egghead Robotnik just gave a hearty laugh and slapped Sonic on the back once again. "It's the most cozy, homey place in the whole world! And furthermore, customers associate you with Green Hill Zone. They say, 'Hm, Sonic? Right, the fast hedgehog from Green Hill Zone, of course!' That's you. Sy-NON-ymous. So that's where we're shooting." But Sonic took a swig of the Ring-Catcher, and hung his head for a moment. "Come on, you're not still all hung up about—"

"No," Sonic quickly answered. "It's just a long run, is all."

But it was a lie, and Sonic was still quite hung up about Miles "Tails" Prower. He quickly downed the rest of his drink, and stood up from the bar. "I'd better head back to the apartment, if I'm going to be rested up for the gig."

And Mr. Egghead Robotnik, he just gives the most chilling, triumphant smile, his eyes almost leering at Sonic. "You certainly should," he said, stroking his mustache. "You certainly should."

Chapter Two

Sonic's apartment lay in upper Rooftop Run, meaning that every night he came home, there was a real bitch of a ramp you had to nail just right in order to get to his apartment. It gave him some satisfaction knowing there would always be a nice chain of rings to collect if he made it home correctly, but in general, traversal of such poorly-designed urban spaces was a hassle of Mephistophelean proportions. And after the crazy run and jump back home, it was always nice to kick off his red shoes and take a shower.

He rested his right hand against the blue tiles of the shower wall, and let hot water flow down his head and body and spines. He breathed heavily, his breath mingling with the steamy fog of the shower. It was equipped with all sorts of jets and things, the shower, but he just used the one overhead faucet. His lifestyle had become one of luxury, but he somehow always remained the down-home Green Hills Zone boy he was in his youth. So he let the flow of hot water just rush over him, the water coursing anxiously hot and fast, and him, completely still, thinking of Tails.

In Robotnik's hopefully-final scheme, the last one before the Accord, he had kidnapped Tails and used him as leverage. The thought of Tails, encased in a glowing green glass coffin attached to a towering fox-shaped mech, still gave Sonic chills, even in the blistering water. And when he had sent the mech crashing down, he had desperately tried to pry the coffin off the mech.

It hadn't work.

And now Miles "Tails" Prower was very much the same lovable fox he had become with Sonic's acquaintance… And yet, whenever Sonic tried to talk to him, he insisted the two did not know each other.

He could not remember Sonic, or many of the other esoterica that comprised his former life. Tabula rasa, as they say, except imagine someone intricately writing "Sonic the Hedgehog!" in bubbly, 3D letters on a chalkboard with a few little pink chalk hearts beside it if you feel me, and but then imagine somebody else coming in and scrubbing that chalkboard clean as a whistle, and that's what I mean by tabula rasa.

Sonic felt his emotional wall, like some physical cylinder from his belly to his heart, weaken, as though it were trembling inside him. And it took wave after wave of stability to force himself not to cry. But he just clutched at the blue tiles on the wall. So hard, in fact, that he accidentally pried a tile off. So he turned off the water, letting the water drip down his naked form for a few minutes before reaching for a towel.

And suddenly there came a banging on the door, and he was startled. He threw the towel around himself, and shambled out into the hall. "Who is it?" he called.

"Sonic!" came the muted cry through the door. "Sonic, it's Amy!" She was pounding on the door. Fuck.

"Coming, yeah," he said, opening the door a crack. "Amy, it's 2 in the morning, what the hell do you want?"

"It's only 10?" she clarified.

"What do you want?"

Amy pushed her way past the door, sending Sonic clutching at his towel as it threatened to fall. "You can't come in like this," he said, but she just strolled through, looking at various pictures on the walls.

"None of me," Amy noted resentfully. "None of Tails, neither."

"I took down the ones of Tails," Sonic admitted, scratching the back of his neck. "It didn't feel right?"

"And me, Sonic? Your own girlfriend?" Amy Rose cried.

Sonic re-wrapped the towel so it would hold more firmly. "Amy Rose," Sonic said, "you need to take better care of yourself. Where's the Piko Piko hammer?" But Amy Rose just sat down on a divan, crossing her arms with a huff and looking out a window. The lighting was pretty dim, a procession of canned lights that made it look less like a home, and more like an art gallery, or a modern jazz club. "Amy, where is it?"

"I need some money," Amy sighed. "Come on, Hedgehog. Just a little bit, I swear."

"Amy," Sonic repeated, "where is the hammer?"

"I pawned it, okay?" she shouted in frustration. "Is that what you wanted to hear? I just needed a little pick-me-up, okay, just a little—"

"Oh no," Sonic cut in, "no you don't. Let me guess: Robotnik's Happy Juice?"

"You always rejected me!" she screamed. "It dulls the pain! It dulls the pain!"

"How? My fucking face is on the damn can," Sonic said. "Besides, that shit shouldn't even be street legal, it probably eats right through your liver." Sonic smoothed the spikes on his head, then sat down next to Amy. "Amy, I'm going to give you some rings; you're gonna go, buy back the Piko Piko hammer, and then tomorrow, we're gonna check you into a clinic, okay?"

Amy gave a dark snort, standing up. "Sure you're busy tomorrow. How 'bout we skip the clinic this time and just give me the rings?"

"But you have to buy back the hammer, okay?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Amy assured, "it's over in the pawn shop in Oil Ocean Zone."

"Do you need me to run over and get it?"

Amy scoffed. "Just get me the rings, boyfriend."

"I'm not your boyfriend," Sonic said through gritted teeth as he walked to his nightstand to grab his wallet.

The rings dropped with their usual jingle into her outstretched hand, and she deposited them in her pocket. As she headed out the door, she turned back to him and said, "If you care so much about your little Tails, isn't he worth starting over for?" And like that, she slammed the door, and the apartment grew slightly darker, no longer receiving the yellow light of the hallway. He knew she was going to spend every last ring on Happy Juice, and come crawling back in a few days; it was a long-established pattern.

But that night, a sweaty and sleepless night where the air felt oddly oppressive, and one sheet felt too hot but no sheets felt freezing, he stared at the ceiling and kept picturing Tails, turning to his left and spying Sonic over his shoulder, and bursting into a smile. When sleep came, it was dreary and dreamless.


	2. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Just like that," Robotnik said, framing Sonic between his index fingers and thumbs, which made a little rectangle. A robotic camera hovered around, swerving like a drunken fly and taking pictures of Sonic with a series of clicks. "Good! Just hold a bit longer… And we're there. Nicely done."

Sonic exhaled deeply as his posture slumped from a mannequin-like rigidity to a comfortable hunch. He said, "Thanks," without really meaning it, and swatted the pineapple-sized robotic butler, Robotnik's Personal Handyman, away. It puttered away in simulated annoyance, and Robotnik gave a hearty laugh.

"The new model's sure to sell like wildfire. Are you sure you don't want one? Free of charge."

"I'm sure," Sonic said, stepping off the canvas of the green-screen and out of the glare of lights and white-balance sheets. It was a bright and sunny day in Green Hill Zone—it almost always was, really—and something about being back felt good. Really good. You could hear the sounds of nature in the background, waterfalls and other animals off a ways. Sonic only wished the occasion were better. "Do you need me for anything else?" he asked Egghead.

And Mr. Egghead made quite the show of scratching his bald head in contemplation, drawing the motion out for almost a minute. All the while, his eyes were intensely fixed on Sonic the way a wolf contemplates a baby bunny with a broken leg. At long last, he gave a reluctant: "Well, no, I suppose you're good for now. I'll find you when next I need you, hm?"

Sonic much desired to run full-speed out of Green Hill Zone, to put the wind in his spines, rush to his apartment, and slam the door, but as soon as he cleared the boundaries of the photo shoot, he came upon a queue of various people/animals waiting in a line for his autograph. "Sonic!" many cried in a perverse chorus that always seemed out of unison. He looked down the line, estimating it to be a good one-hundred-twenty people or so. He ran a stressed hand through his spines, then walked over to the first person with a sigh. She was a chipmunk. "Let's see here; name?"

"Nina," she said.

"One i?"

"Clearly have two," she said in frustration.

"No, in the name?"

"Oh, I can't spell," Nina replied, causing everybody nearby behind her to groan.

"Well, I'll just sign it 'To a fan, Sonic,' is that okay?"

"Oh no, it's for my niece, Deborah."

And signing as fast as possible (faster, faster, faster-faster-faster, WEOW, WEOW), he made out the notebook she had proffered, and was onto the next person. In lieu of describing each of the one-hundred-twenty people to whom he gave signatures, I would encourage you to go out into the world and have approximately one-hundred-twenty frustrating experiences of your own in quick succession, and just insert that feeling right on in here.

Just at the end of the line, Sonic's heart came jolting to a halt and he found his spikes standing on edge. "Amy? And… Tails?" Amy was holding the crook of Tails' elbow right into her own, and Tails smiled and blinked blankly.

"You're Sonic, right?" Tails asked, a small smile on his face. "My new friend Amy was just telling me a bit about you, and we heard you were in the area." Amy's face alighted with a fiendish smile, practically bearing her teeth at Sonic.

"Why," Amy Rose said, "the man himself, Sonic the Hedgehog. Look who I found." Sonic bolstered his resolve not to wince.

"Oh," was the only reply he could muster, lame though it was.

"I've heard some things since last we talked," Miles said, seeming to squeeze Amy's arm tighter. "What say the three of us go grab lunch somewhere?"

"Sure thing," Sonic answered, carefully inspecting Amy's eyes. She gave a throaty chuckle, an almost-husky kind of thing.

"As long as it's somewhere in Green Hill Zone," she stipulated. Seeing Tails here, now, with her, made him want to get as far out of Green Hill Zone as possible. Could she really have seduced Tails away from him? Would she be that heartless? They weren't even the same species.

"There's this place I've been going a lot since my accident," Tails said. If he picked up on the tension between Amy Rose and Sonic, it didn't show. "It's just a little diner, fully automated and quite tasty, if I do say so." He sort of half-nuzzled his head up against Amy's shoulder, affectionately, and then snuck her arm away from hers. "What'd'ya say?"

"Lead the way," Sonic bluffed, though of course he knew the exact spot and could run there faster than either of the other two.

And soon enough, they were there: Egghead's Eggs, a greasy spoon that served as one of the few polluting aspects of Green Hill Zone. Egghead had gotten rights to build, and also to pollute, right in eastern (like, down and to the right) Green Hill Zone, and had changed the whole area's infrastructure to make transportation there easier. Tails walked ahead of Amy and Sonic, whistling contentedly as Sonic and Amy had a half-conversation with just their eyes. Sonic, largely questioning, and Amy, grinning mischievously the whole walk.

When they finally arrived at Egghead's Eggs, Sonic's gut wrenched: for who should be in the restaurant but its very own proprietor, Mr. Egghead Robotnik? Tails absently greeted the ectomorphic man (c.f. Sheldon), who was canoodling by the entryway between prowling tables and ingratiating himself with patrons. Sonic gave a terse nod, which made Egghead send off a boisterous chuckle, and Amy rose cross her also gave a laugh as they followed Tails to a table. Picture how Chilli's basically has those iPad things now, and that's like, sort of the kind of deal-y-o we're discussing here, though of course every machine Robotnik ever designed coughed up smoke like my Aunt Jodie. And Tails seemed endlessly fascinated with the device, pecking its screen with his fingers like a grandmother on a typewriter.

"Oops," Tails said, his face blushing in embarrassment.

"Hm?" Amy Rose asked. Sonic was trying hard not to come on too strong, and so was veering in the opposite direction—looking somewhat bored, and glancing around the restaurant.

"I think I just ordered us-"

" **HELLO AND WELCOME TO EGGHEAD'S EGGS WE APPRECIATE YOUR ORDER AND IT WILL BE OUT IN…** ** _TWO…_** **MINUTES.** **HAVE A GREAT DAY.** " The robotic server puttered a little smoke as he jetted off.

"Well," Tails said with a shrug and a nervous chuckle, "I hope you like sliders." Sonic glanced at him, and the two made eye contact, then both quickly looked away.

"I lovvvvvvve sliders," Amy Rose said, letting her teeth really sink into the v and almost humming it, a half-sensual sound.

Tails scratched the back of his head, and looked again at the ordering device. "Yeah, I sure hope so, 'cause it would seem I set the amount to fifty." He cast a nervous glance at Sonic, then looked away, then looked back. "Sonic?"

"Hm?" Sonic said, his head snapping back towards Tails.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said, though of course his heart was racing. "I just haven't been to Green Hill Zone in a while, since the Accord."

"I'm given to understand we used to be pretty close?" Miles asked. When just then, the mechanical server practically exploded from the kitchen, bearing a tray of fifty sliders to the table and setting out plates and silverware.

" **ENJOY YOUR MEAL** ," the robotic voice blared. And the robot's presence brought Egghead himself over, lumbering with his big frame.

"Do enjoy," he said, and gave a wink to Sonic. "That's a lot of sliders."

Tails gave an apologetic smile. "Oh, well, I accidentally—"

"No refunds," Robotnik replied as he sauntered away.

Whatever might be speculated about the metabolism of the hedgehog capable of the fastest movement on the planet, even Sonic couldn't tuck away fifty sliders (which turned out to be the size of regular hamburgers). Partly due to his nerves; he was so anxious he was nauseous, and every time he glanced at Tails, who often was looking back, he had a small heart attack. Not really but, you know. Tails had eaten enthusiastically, and was trying hard to make whatever conversation was ready to be made. But Sonic was afraid—why was Tails suddenly being so friendly, when Sonic had tried reaching out, shortly after the accident, and he'd seemed so hesitant. And Amy was clearly planning something, nuzzling up to Tails whenever she could.

The serving device came over, and hung menacingly over the table. " **YOUR TOTAL CHARGE IS…** ** _one, hundred, twenty…_** **RINGS. ANY INABILITY TO PAY IS** "

"Yeah, just add it to my tab," Sonic said. He'd made a good five hundred rings on the photo shoot, and had plenty more in his official Robotnik Accounts.

"No, Sonic, let me chip in!" Tails insisted.

"No," Sonic replied bluntly, "I've got the rings. It's really no trouble."

Amy smirked, but Tails was frustrated in a way that almost seemed confused.

"You hardly talk the whole meal, but you pay for it all?" he asked. "So you think you can buy me, is the impression I'm getting?"

But before an astonished Sonished could even reply, Amy put her hand on Tail's arm and said, "Come now. Little old Sonic's just a wee bit shy after being apart." She rubbed his arm in an effort to soothe, and Tails looked past Sonic for a moment, blankly observing him like he was a painting hung thirty feet in the distance.

"I have to go," he stammered, waiting for Amy Rose to get up before he could rise from the booth.

Sonic was annoyed to say the least, and confused and hurt, but still, from somewhere inside him, a spark of hope flickered, emboldening his tongue. "Wait, Miles," he pleaded, "I'm sorry. I want to see you again… Give me one more chance." He smoothed his spikes (on his head, though theoretically there should be some on his back? Maybe?), and set his hands flat on the table. "It's hard to know so much about you, know a person so well, and then lose that. You don't even remember the first time we met, and when I look at you, I see whole years of my life… I'm just trying not to put that pressure on you."

Tails smiled softly. "You kind of just did, but I see your point." There was a quiet moment at the table, save for Amy anxiously tapping her fingernails against her arm. (Withdrawal from Robotnik's Happy Juice set on quick; she hadn't had a can since that morning, and was jonesing hard for the refreshing _ksh_ of the tab popping.) At last, Tails said: "So… I'll see you again sometime?"

"I'd like that," Sonic replied with a grin he couldn't suppress, and his insides seemed to bloom and light up.

"Now come on," Amy insisted, pulling Tails by the arm out of the booth. "The movie starts in twenty, and I don't want to sit in the back row again."

"Bye!" Tails called, practically being dragged out of the restaurant.

"Seeya around," Sonic replied, watching them proceed outside. He followed them with his eyes after they'd left… So he couldn't miss Amy lean over and peck Tails on the cheek as they headed to the theater in Star Light Zone. _Shit._

And just like that, having spent 120 rings and with an unsatisfying mixture of hope and loss, love and regret, potential and bitterness, Sonic stood from the table and ran to Oil Ocean Zone, figuring Amy had probably not bought back the Piko Piko hammer.

And, by the way, I have no Aunt Jodie.


	3. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Ironically enough, as soon as Amy Rose planted the kiss on Tails' cheek, he groaned. Sonic couldn't hear, of course.

"Do you mind? I don't know why you're being so physically affectionate. I told you, I don't really like that…"

"Oh, lighten up," Amy Rose insisted, nuzzling her head on her shoulder. "I'm the one who's going to make things right for you, remember?"

"I don't even know what that means…" Tails glanced anxiously around. His mood made the sunny weather seem a sardonic chuckle of a mirthless god. Seeing Sonic had made him happy, but Sonic's anxious mood somewhat brought him down. "You could be lying to me about all of it. I may have amnesia, but I'm not a naive child."

"That's a shame," Amy Rose said, putting some pep in her step towards the theater. "A naive child is probably how Sonic remembers you… It's certainly who you were when you first met." Tails tried to put some more distance between them, and she just saddled right on back to his side.

"What's the movie?" Tails asked.

"It's another Robotnik-Sonic flick. _The Temple of the Chaos Emeralds 3: Shadow's Revenge_."

Tails almost stopped in his tracks. "Is this another one of those action movies?" Amy smacked the back of his head lightly.

"Come on, give it a chance, once in your life."

"No, those are the most vapid things ever." Tails sighed. "I don't know why I hang out with you."

"You just have no one else," Amy Rose clarified. "But come on. Old Amy isn't all that bad, is she?" She cracked open a pack of cigarettes, and removed one of her tobacco companions, setting its head alight. She had stopped offering Tails cigarettes after a solid month of No.

"Ooh, let's stop in here," she added, smoke oozing from her mouth. "I need to get some Happy Juice."

And Tails, he just sighed and followed her into the the Egg-n-Stop.

"Thank you," Sonic was saying to the pawn shop owner, just having bought back the Piko Piko hammer. He couldn't use it himself, of course, but it represented Amy Rose's hope for redemption, in his eyes. If she gave that up, it was consigning her to the drainpipe of Juice and addiction. Oil Ocean Zone was one of the dirty, tainted parts of their once-beautiful home. Not ten feet from the door, he saw a group of Juice addicts lounging around on the curb, laughing. When they saw him, they started doing impressions of him, lolling their legs around to try to imitate his run. They were too messed up to even do that, just cackling and grabbing each other's shoulders. One fell off the curb. Sonic just strolled past.

As he walked past an alleyway, he heard a familiar voice. "Sonic," it called. "I need your help."

And out of the shadows appeared Shadow himself, eyes glancing around anxiously. "Come here."

Sonic didn't like the suspicious behavior, but Shadow had been behaving himself lately. So he walked into the alley. "I don't like the look of this," Sonic said.

"I'm in some deep shit, Sonic, and I wanted to make sure you heard the truth before any lies started." He gave a sigh, and leaned his back against the building behind him, his head looking up and one leg crossed over the other. "It's all so messed up."

"Just tell me what's happened," Sonic said, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "You didn't go to acting school, don't monologue."

Shadow just gave a sorrowful smile, looking at Sonic then looking back up at the gritty sky overhead. "Sonic… Knuckles is dead."

And Sonic almost smacked Sonic in the face, but he restrained himself. His pulse began running, and a hotness rose to his face. "You'd better explain what the fuck you're talking about. Knuckles is supposed to be guarding the Chaos Emeralds in Sky Sanctuary Zone right now."

Shadow stepped away from the wall and came quite close to Sonic's face. "I don't know where to start, and it's a sensitive situation. But… basically, I went over to Sky Sanctuary Zone, and—"

"There's nothing up there _except_ the newly-created housing for the Chaos Emeralds," Sonic said through gritted teeth. "Shadow casually goes to Sky Sanctuary Zone? You're one sentence in, and the story's already not adding up."

"Listen, kid," Shadow snapped, "I'm about to be in a real heap of a mess, and you're the only person I trust to believe me. If you don't listen to what I have to say, those Emeralds are gonna be quite a problem, and the real bastard that did this is going to get away with it."

Sonic crossed his arms. "Okay. All ears here."

"So," Shadow continued, "I went over to SSZ. And when I got to Knuckles' guard post…" In a rare moment for him, Shadow appeared to be fighting tears, with wet eyes and a sort of crackle in his throat. "Knuckles… Fuck, Sonic, Knuckles was dying. Bleeding all over the place, coughing blood, and slumped up against a wall. I ran over, I asked who did it, and all I could make out was 'Vein.' I think." Shadow closed his eyes tight, then opened and wiped them. "Dammit, Sonic. But I tried to help him, I put a handkerchief over the wound, a bullet wound, and… My prints are all over there, Sonic. I couldn't find any evidence, and I left more prints there than a newsboy." He cleared his throat. "I have a record. They're gonna try and pin me for this, Sonic. I just want you to find whoever did this, and make them pay."

"I don't buy it," Sonic said. "Nice tears and all, but you were just casually romping over to Knuckles' guard post?"

Shadow's eyes grew wide with rage, but he shut them again, and opened them more calmly. "Sonic… Knuckles was…" He leaned right up to Sonic's ear, putting a hand on his shoulder, and said, "Sonic… Knuckles and I… after the Accord, we got drinks, caught up. But… he was my boyfriend, Sonic. I loved him." He withdrew. "I can't have word getting out. He didn't want anyone to know. But I always visited him at this exact time of day."

"So it's possible the killer left him alive, knowing you'd soil the crime scene."

"I mean, yeah, it's possible." Shadows started to walk backwards. "I just thought you ought to know. I'll be hiding low, but I'll find you if I can."

"You have to go to the authorities, Shadow," Sonic insisted. "We can clear your name, together; if you run, it only makes you look guilty."

"Sonic, you know what the prosecutors are like around these parts. And you know my history." He turned, and said over his shoulder, "Gotta run." And he did, and Sonic just stood in the wake of his super-fast boots, pondering what he had just heard.

Thus thought Miles "Tails" Prower after the movie:

 _I don't know why my stomach does the thing it does. Like, when I see Sonic. Obviously they just used an actor… Sonic isn't the only hedgehog out there. I think it's Nightshade the Hedgehog playing him, just dyed blue. But why this quaking in my gut? Why do I thrill at such stupid, stupid movies? Just because Sonic is in them? Why? Then again, I don't fully trust Amy Rose. She was always there when I came to. She said Sonic had been by my bedside during the accident; that he was a "strong acquaintance" and that he had felt remorseful after my accident. But something doesn't sit right. I don't know if I'd feel this way about an acquaintance. Knowing my luck, I probably just nursed an unrequited crush for far too long. Again. Oh, Miles, get it together. Sonic is a celebrity, and you're just an amnesiac._

 _And now Amy and I are walking out of the theater. She's touching my arm again, and it makes me uncomfortable. I say so, she doesn't care. She's messed up on Happy Juice, slouching against my side and babbling. I can't make it out, but she seems upset about something. I tell her I'm taking her home, and she asks me to stay the night._

 _I clarify, once more, it's not like that, and it's never to be like that. She tries to kiss me, her lips wet and sloppy, and I fly a bit above her. She gets upset, chucking the Juice can and yelling in the street. A rabbit stares at us, and still hovering in the air, I tell him to keep walking. But I need to walk Amy home. She's a mess. I grab the can she threw, and lead her forward by luring her with the Happy Juice. Her knees are bruised; the Juice makes your leg-control disappear entirely. Bad dame in a bad part of town, can't believe she lives over in Casino Night. She's a mess, and now I have to practically carry her myself._

 _And now she's talking about Sonic. Don't know why she's always snuggling up to me when she really wants the Hedgehog himself. I can't blame her. He seemed distressed at lunch… maybe, to him, I'm just the guy he accidentally hurt. He probably only wants to see me out of guilt. Stupid, stupid Tails; how different am I from this drunken girl who's flailing around?_

 _And soon enough, she goes into a Juice hole, her entire body still and her eyes vacant. So I have to carry her home, no "practically." And she's whispering something now, and it's urgent and terrible, but her tongue and lips are slaves to the high, and I can't make it out. I can only hope that things are getting better. I want to feel like they are. I've talked to Sonic, and I've got a friend, and the night falls peacefully. But I can't help thinking, it's all getting worse._


End file.
